Promoting the Nutritional Value of Products

Marilyn Wilkinson Director, Public Relations, UDIA 36300 N. River Rd. Rosemont, IL 60018

Thank you for inviting me here today. You have asked me • Marketing and Economic Research to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time­ • Nutrition Research and Nutrition Education discuss the topic of promoting nutrition. • Product and Process Research First, I want to make it crystal clear-I am not a nutri­ • Advertising and Sales Promotion tionist. In fact, I am not in the scientific disciplines per se. I • Communications and Public Relations am a professional in the field of public relations-a piece of There is a tendency in my industry-and indeed in many I the marketing puzzle. And, as a key player in the dairy and believe-to regard marketing research as justification for a food industries, I have many thoughts I want to share with particular promotion program. We devise promotion cam­ you. paigns because the research tells us certain things. We A major point is simply this: Promoting nutrition is big continue the campaign because the research tells us it is business-and apparently getting bigger. Have you watched working. television lately? Looked at a cereal box? Read a newspaper? But marketing research should be telling us much more. It Americans are being bombarded by more and more should be painting a big picture for us, and those of us in promotional messages, and more and more of them have to marketing should be figuring out how our products fit into do with nutrition ... that picture-both now and in the future. Moderate You'd better know what the trends are-and then figure out Reduce how you can fit into those trends. As our Marketing Research Fiber division has analyzed the situation, here are some major Calcium trends: Fat • The Aging of America Cholesterol • Growing Affluence of Americans Sodium • Changing American Household These and others are becoming household words. All of a • The Quest for Convenience sudden, we are hearing nutritional messages from products • New Eating Trends Both at Home and Away we never thought had one! • Strength and Stability of the U.S. Economy Well, I am happy to report that the dairy industry has long • Competitive Activity and Innovation within the Food believed in promoting nutrition and we've long taken what I Industry believe to be a very responsible approach. We are committed • Changing Lifestyles-by that I mean mainly interest in · to a total promotion program. There is an unfortunate health and fitness and nutrition and diet concerns. tendency to think of promotion by some merely as advertis­ ing and sales promotion activities. While these elements are Let's take a cursory glimpse at each of these trends because basic, they are not the only pieces of the marketing puzzle I I believe you1l see them reflected-at least I hope you will-in alluded to just a moment ago. some specific dairy promotions 111 describe to you later. All of With the increase in promotional messages being commu­ these trends certainly affect how we communicate our nutri­ nicated to the consumer, all of us have to be creative with tion messages. our own promotion messages. What is going to make my We as a country are getting older. Americans will die at a message different from others? More memorable? More faster rate than they will be born-by the year 2,014, actionable? That's what we have to ask ourselves constantly population experts predict deaths will exceed births. because the answers to these questions are not absolute­ In 1983, the average age of the U.S. population was 30.9 they change almost as quickly as the fickle consumer who years old-in the year 2,000 it will be 36. In 1985, about one­ can be illusive, unpredictable and given to self-interest. fourth of the population was 50 years old or older, but that So, back to a point I made earlier-Promotion is a puzzle segment controlled three-fourths of the nation's financial of many pieces and that applies to nutrition as well as to any assets. other issue. In my organization, United Dairy Industry Good news for housing sales, appliances, furniture-and I Association-a group which represents state and regional believe nutritious foods. organizations within the dairy industry-we look at promo­ Potentially bad news for trendy clothing, beer, cassettes, tion in these divisions: videos and junk foods.

42 THE BOVINE PROCEEDINGS-No. 20 The aging of our population is directly tied to the growing It means-according to our Research division-that pro­ affluence of it, the second trend. For the first time, the 65-and­ duct image is paramount. We must market products whose over segment exceeds teenagers in numbers. They have image is consistent with that of its user. discretionary income and their spending veers towards stocks Our senior vice president of Marketing Research described and bonds, low-maintenance housing and travel. Meanwhile, changing lifestyles in a recent speech. younger Americans are living in the two-income household or "During the 1950s tradition and family life were sacred," woman-as-head-of-household. The American household is she said. "The times were conservative." not the same as it was just a few years ago. The 60s ushered in an upheaval of the 50s values-mores The working woman phenomenon has tremendous impact were questioned; issues were faced with near revolutionary on us in the food industry-she wants her food fast and zeal. The 70s offered integration-moderation became ac­ convenient. And if she can't prepare it under these conditions, cepted. The 80s comprise a self-oriented decade, dominated she'll buy it out. She is interested in nutrition to be sure-but by Yuppie acquisition, the era of "me." You need only look at she is no longer going to dish it up at traditional sit-down our constant friend television to illustrate this swing. In the family meals. We in dairy counted on her in the past to be the 50s Ozzie, Harriet and their two mischievous-but really gatekeeper who "takes care" of her family's nutritional needs. good kids-reigned. In the 80s it's Dynasty-where mink We can't do that anymore. Families are eating out more, coats and unhappy mates are disposed of at whimsy. Off­ either together or individually. spring no longer worry about getting permission to use the car What are we as dairy food promoters doing about all of on Saturday night-now they ponder whether to take their this? Well, we are trying to educate all family members-not Porche or the Van. just moms and future moms-about nutrition. We're devising Perhaps one of the more positive outcomes of this me­ strong promotion programs to communicate to the food­ orientation is that we are taking care of little number one-or service industry. We're developing convenience products and at least we are saying that we are. People today are packaging. concerned-if not downright obsessed-about health, Another trend I mentioned is the state of the U.S. economy. nutrition and fitness. Why? Because they want to live better It has been strong. Consumers continue to spend more and and longer. They want to exercise right. And while they're more for food, totaling $74 a week on groceries on the doing that, they want to wear their Jane Fonda leotards and average. Reebok tennies. And they want to eat right. They claim to

At the same time, dairy prices have held firm, a very prefer slenderizing Sushi which for all of its low fat, low 0 "'O positive factor for us. Dairy foods always are a great cholesterol virtues poses a great parasitical danger. (D nutritional value-now they're a real price value too. Our research suggests to us in the dairy ind us try, however, ~ ~ Americans have always prided themselves on their innova­ that much of this health talk is just that-talk. While people ('.") (D tive skills- we want to be the first with the most and the best. are setting goals of living a different way, and, therefore, 00 00 The food industry is no exception. What we are seeing now in eating a different way, they are not acting out these goals. 0...... 00 the way of innovation is intense levels of advertising compe­ Some recent studies show this: One-third of Americans ,-+- '"i tition and increasing development ofimitation dairy products. exercise with regularity. The number of regular committed ~ If we look at industries as a whole, we can see that dairy is exercisers has actually declined a bit-from 33 percent in 1983 ~...... no where near to competing with its adversaries when it comes to 30 percent in 1985. Only 16 percent of adults claimed to 0p to advertising dollars: exercise every day in I 986. The soft drink industry outspends generic and Likewise, dieting appears to have peaked earlier in the branded advertising by roughly to 7 to I! 1980s. Under one-third of American adults currently report The second innovation I mentioned-development of they seriously diet. imitation or substitute dairy foods-is an ominous one, Our own current dairy attitudes and usage study-a very indeed. These foods challenge dairy products on two vulner­ large sampling of consumers-indicates little change in able fronts: Health concerns and price. Many of these foods consumer ratings of general nutrition and health-oriented claim lower fat, Cholesterol and calories levels while at the items. A section of this study attempts to segment U.S. teen same time they are more inexpensive. and adult population based on lifestyle elements. We have Fortunately, we have two factors in our favor: quality and statistically formed 11 "meaningful" lifestyle clusters- only our own product innovations which are helping us offer the two of which can be at all linked with "n.ealth-oriented" same virtues of imitations with better taste and quality. y OU 'll mentality. Combined, they .represent 19 percent of the see these efforts when I describe our work in new product and population. The remaining 81 percent do not fall into the process research. health camp we hear so much about. Finally, let's look at that overused word-lifestyles. They've Paradoxically, this does not mean we should disregard been described ad nauseum in the media-the people who have health issues when we promote dairy foods. Far from it. The them have been called YUPPIES, DIN CS and heaven knows research I've cited describes behavior-not thought. Con­ what else! sumers do think-and are concerned-about exercise, But what does it all really mean? nutrition and health-and all the ramifications.

APRIL, 1988 43 If you're promoting products, you better convince provides students in leading medical and dental schools with consumers to think those products fit into healthy lifestyles­ additional lectures in nutrition from prestigious researchers whether or not they're actually living them. funded by the dairy industry. They say they don't want fat, cholesterol, calories, artificial Our Nutrition education programs in schools have long ingredients, salt. They say they do want calcium, protein and been the envy of other commodity groups .. This status has vitamins ... been achieved through years of reliable, unbiased work with I think you can see that this poses some severe challenges to educators. Last year, NOC updated its classroom program us in the dairy world. We are part of the do's and the don'ts. for first through sixth graders with nutrition messages that fit So, I think we're doing what any of you would do-we're right into the changing lifestyles I described earlier. And while accentuating the positive and we're dealing with the negative they're at the business of learning, kids have fun. In one through a variety of ways ... Education is one. Did you know exercise they try to eat a cracker while using their lips to that many people would be shocked to learn that their own chew-not their teeth, which of course need calcium to bodies produce most of the cholesterol in their blood streams? develop. In another, they stir up a parfait. Secondly, we're developing different dairy products. Apparently, educators like these lively techniques because Now let's look at some promotion in the to date NOC has sold more than 25,000 teacher kits-well context of the divisions I enumerated when I started. over the projected goal set for March of next year. The dairy industry is very fortunate indeed to boast a very Another way our nutrition education efforts promote dairy highly regarded nutrition component-National Dairy products is to adults. We already have programs in weight Council which is part of United Dairy Industry Association. management, calcium and osteoporosis- and we're National Dairy Council has been operating since 1917 in broadening these adult efforts with a new program that will two basic nutritional fields: research and education. address today's busy and changing lifestyles. National Dairy Council promotes nutrition and dairy We are fortunate indeed to have affiliated Dairy Council product consumption through its philosophy of a diet of units throughout the country to take these programs to the balance, moderation and variety, a diet that necessarily grass-roots where we believe they work very effectively. includes meats or protein, grains, fruits and vegetables ... and In product and process research, another division which I dairy foods. enumerated at the outset, we are adding to product Basically, the nutrition research area provides the promotion by reflecting much of the trend information we information for the nutrition educators to talk about. Since discussed. Our research is achieving a better understanding of 0 "d the dairy industry adopted a national promotion check-off the composition of milk and how its elements can be (ti which all dairy farmers pay-15 cents per hundredweight­ separated, restructured and combined in different ways. Some ~ P:l 0 three years ago, our research efforts have increased of the processes allow product developers to break milk down 0 (D dramatically. into these smaller parts and even create new food categories. en en In 1983 National Dairy Council administered about one­ New foods will contain all or part of the different components 0.. half a million dollars in dairy research-today it's over the five and nutrients found in milk. Others will use more or less of -·rJ). ~ million dollar mark. Current studies focus on everything from one component- such as calcium, fat or lactose-to form a s,: lactose intolerance to the relationship of eating and product acceptable to consumers. g dental caries. These studies are not exercises in Ivory Tower Granted, we are already doing some of this now with high­ 0-· ~ philosophizing. It was a small exploratory research project calcium milk and lowfat milk and - but these funded by NOC several years ago that lead to the discovery of products will taste better when new technologies are in place. a possible link between calcium intake and reduced risk of Some of these new processes you'll doubtless hear lots more high blood pressure, a relationship that is going to add to the about are ultrafiltration, column separation and freeze tremendous advantages of sufficient calcium intake, a subject concentration. about which we already are hearing much in regard to I'd be kidding you if I told you I understood these high-tech osteoporosis and bone health. sounding processes, but I do understand this: they are helping The research side of the NOC house customarily talks us create new product prototypes which we can promote. 111 through third party endorsers-opinion leaders in allied mention two briefly. industries. These include researchers, of course, medical At the moment, we at United Dairy Industry Association doctors and other health organizations. We often present are in a scale-up cooperative venture to produce a spreadable workshops or symposia on the programs of the meetings of which has half the calories, fat and cholesterol of the Institute of Food Technologists or American Dietetic regular butter. Still, it is a real dairy product with real dairy Association, for example. flavor. One of our most ambitious programs is our Visiting Pro­ Second, we are working on flavored and, in fessor in Nutrition tour. Medical students and dental students particular, carbonated milk. If you haven't heard about this in this country do not receive a thorough education in research, I'd be surprised. It certainly captured the nutrition. In fact, many take just one course in their college imagination and fancy of the media last fall. experience. The Visiting Professor in Nutrition program These clips prove at least one thing: when you change milk,

44 THE BOVINE PROCEEDINGS-No. 20 you change nature and that makes news ... and news ... and American Dairy Association and the Beef Industry Council more news. So product and process research does promote­ and Beef Board cooperated on a spring cheeseburger it is fundamental to our future successes. promotion. We expect to be repeating that highly successful But yes, nothing promotes like advertising and sales partnership in 1988 as well as other promotions. promotion. In 1987 the dairy industry will spend about $180 We emphasized the tremendous growth in foodservice­ million on generic advertising and sales promotion. This takes eating out-earlier, and our advertising types are zeroing in into account national and regional efforts. on this market. We publish Real Dairy Discoveries, one of the The trends we talked about earlier and the role of most successful foodservice programs ever conducted by Marketing Research, in general, are very instrumental in our American Dairy Association, our advertising organization advertising programs. To see how, let's look at a couple of our within United Dairy Industry Association. One of its strong­ milk campaign ads. I don't think you11 be surprised to hear est themes tells the restaurateur-Don't try to cheat your that Milk is America's Health Kick. patrons with imitations whose taste and nutritional qualities What we see in these clips is a positioning of milk to fit are not those preferred in real dairy products. contemporary America. These ads feature milk both as a An independently conducted survey indicates that aware­ beverage for in-home and out-of-home consumption. It is a ness of American Dairy Association among foodservice fun drink-and as you can see by the energy displayed by the operators cannot get much higher-95 percent of those commercial's personalities, it fits right into all kinds of surveyed. activities ... for the young, the older, and just about everyone in Finally, I'd like to describe briefly the role I personally between. You will note that milk fits the lifestyles of ethnic know best in the promotional puzzle-that of communica­ Americans as well. tions and public relations. You know, I realize that it's hard to The nutrition message is there, too ... maybe not in so many define public relations. My neighbors of 14 years still can't grams but by implication. Look at the healthy activities these figure out what it is I do every day, and I'm not sure my personalities are participating in. And of course, the lyrics of parents have ever figured it out. Fortunately, my husband is in the song tout..."Milk, America's Health Kick"-Everybody the same business, so I don't get misunderstanding there ... knows how to do that kick. only suggestions. Anyway, the point is that a lot of people out Our cheese advertising has played heavily on the consumer there think public relations is all about image-that intan­ trends of convenience, in- and out-of-home eating and desire gible, illusive "something" that simply can't be defined. for taste, quality and naturalness. Well, I suppose that perception is not all bad. I talked 0 "'O Likewise, current butter ads stress naturalness, taste and earlier about how important image is, but I certainly think (D wide appeal of this product whose quality is widely perceived public relations is much more focused than this. ~ ~ by the consumer. A nutrition message communicated in our We are part of promotion because we deal in messages­ (") (D butter ads is that butter and margarine have the same calories. very concrete messages, but instead of purchasing time for 00 00 A surprising number of consumers labor under the mis­ them-like advertising does-we have to make the media 0...... 00 conception that margarine is lower in calories. want to print them or air them for free-as part of news or talk ,-+. '"i The "REAL" Seal on dairy products is yet another way the shows or health shows or the like. ~ dairy industry promotes nutrition to the consumer by Public Relations has an advantage in promoting com­ ~...... assuring him or her that the product is all nutritionally that's plicated issues like nutrition because it is not necessarily 0p expected. To date, more than 1,200 companies are part of our bound by time and length constraints. A commercial can be "REAL" Seal program. Some of these are Burger King, Pizza 30 seconds-or perhaps 15 or 60 seconds-but a discussion by Hut and Hardees. a nutrition expert on a TV talk show can run much longer­ The impact of these firms is pretty impressive when you sometimes the length of the show. · consider that McDonald's is the world's largest consumer of To promote nutrition, the communications and public domestic dairy products, using annually 1.8 percent of all milk relations efforts of our dairy organization encompass news produced by U.S. farms. The average McDonald's restaurant releases to both health professionals and consumers, media last year served training for our nutrition spokespersons, media placement • 80,000 activities, presentations like this one and work on brochures, • 55,000 real dairy soft serve cones and sundaes video news releases and many related areas. • 18,500 pounds of Cheddar cheese. So there you have it-an interdisciplinary mix which best Pizza Hut uses more than 120 million pounds of describes how the dairy industry approaches nutrition Mozzarella each year-it takes the production of 100,000 promoon. While advertising and sales promotions are the cows just to keep Pizza Hut pies topped with the real thing! highly visible components-as well they should be-there Point-of-purchase promotions are yet another are many functions which support their efforts, expand promotional vehicle, and if you11 reflect, you probably can them and penetrate markets not so easily influenced by recall some first-hand. We customarily develop fall cheese, advertisements. holiday, spring cheese and June Dairy Month Point-of­ The bottom line results, I'm happy to report, are very Purchase promo-tions. For the second year m 1987, epcouraging. From 1983 through 1986, milk and dairy

APRIL, 1988 45 product consumption increased IO percent. This is the that moving to Italy would negate the risk of heart attack largest and longest sustained dairy product sales increase because Italians eat olive oil- and olive oil doesn't contain ever. cholesterol. Now for the bad news ... Then, there are those Fleishmann TV ads where a 30ish All this increased attention to nutrition is a bit scary ... at young man rather heavy handedly implies that his longevity is least to me-and here I am going to give you some of my much more secure now because he's switched to margarine. personal opinions. There may be a germ of truth in these and other overstated First, the interest in nutrition and its promotion have health claims in advertising-and yet I am overwhelmed by created an unfortunate race to make simplistic messages out the distortion-a harmful distortion that rips off the of complicated information. This simplistic approach is consumer. explained away under the guise of making scientific informa Here's what Business Week had to say in a recent article tion understandable to the consumer. entitled "Tell Us It's New and Improved- But Keep Health Perhaps, but it is causing severe miscommunications. First, Out of It." "It's impossible for consumers to sort through the we've lost sight of the individual. Nutrition needs vary babble of health claims and figure out which are backed by depending on stage of life, pregnancy, lifestyle and other reliable scientific evidence. Some claims are largely factors. They aren't the same for everybody. meaningless. Margarines and vegetable oils boast of having Suddenly, we have a laundry list of good foods/ bad foods no cholesterol- but no vegetable product contains for everyone when in reality a healthful diet draws from a cholesterol." variety of foods from the major food groups. To eat The article continues to quote a principal of the Wistar excessively from one is no more healthful than eliminating Institute for biological research as noting, "that's like saying: another. "Always use Mobil gas because there's no cholesterol in it." Let's stop categorizing and begin educating! Nutrition messages are sometimes undermined by the other Still, even when messages and health claims are well and side of the media. So far we've been talking about adverti­ accurately expressed, we may miscommunicate. sing-but reporters and editors also have a responsibility­ Allan L. Forbes, director of the office of Nutrition and perhaps an even greater one- to accuracy. By it's nature, Food Sciences at FDA'sCenter on Food Safety and Applied news, is new. That's why we don't hear daily reports that the Nutrition, recently said that the consumer- "likes tidy causes U.S. food supply is the safest in the world. and effects and prefers definites to maybes. He often puts his There's nothing new in that- this happily has been the 0 "d own interpretation on reports. When scientists say 'risk,' the situation for some time. So instead the news tend to focus on (1) consumer sometimes hears 'causes,' or when scientists say the exception: ~ ~ 'moderate,' that is interpreted as 'eliminate' and 'many of us' • Biological contamination during food processing (") (1) as 'all of us.' " • Allergies to dairy foods or lactose intolerance cr:i cr:i The result, he says, is that we get bizarre diets and • A fad diet 8-:r:n supplements and fads that eliminate certain foods and are way There's not much we can do about news coverage as long as q- heavy in others tending to do the very thing scientists least these and other topics are accurately reported. If they're not, [ want: zeroing in on one specific nutrient. we should not be shy about pointing out inaccuracies, o· I agree with Mr. Forbes. How else can you explain the however. And- just as important-we should be smart in p popularity of such radical-and, I believe, potentially using the media to promote our new headlines: dangerous- diets as that of Harvey and Marilyn Diamond in New products their blockbuster bestseller "Fit for Life"? New nutrition findings Health is governed more by influences than absolutes-this New consumer research findings is another complicated message we- and here I include all of I hope you as doctors, scientists and leaders in your us in positions of influence in our spheres- must start playing communities will help us in the dairy industry promote good back to consumers. Don't forget genetics! How important is nutrition. this factor-no one knows with certainty, and yet few Communicate its complexity, its individuality-its scientists argue that it wields a mighty-if not prominent­ importance. Use your influence and dedication not only to influence, especially when applied to specific risks and increase the wellness of the animals you treat-but ultimately diseases. the consumer you-and all of us-serve. Recently I heard a radio ad for Bertoli olive oil- it implied

46 THE BOVINE PROCEEDINGS-No. 20 0 "d (ti ~ P:l 0 0 (D en en 0.. -·rJ). ~ gs-: 0-· ~

Announcing the AABP Award for Excellence in Preventive Veterinary Medicine The American Association of Bovine Practitioners and MSD AGVET invite you to Entries are judged by an AABP panel participate in the only awards program that solely on the merits of the individual programs. recognizes outstanding efforts in bovine To obtain an entry form and additional preventive medicine. information on this year's awards program Awards will be presented to two practi­ contact: Harold E. Amstutz, DVM, AABP tioners each year. One will be given to the Executive Secretary/ Treasurer, Box 2319 , outstanding program in beef production. The West Lafayette, Indiana 47906. second award will honor an equally sound Funding for this program is provided by program for dairymen. MSD AGVET, the agricultural and animal A $1,500 general fund scholarship contribu­ health division of Merck & Co. , Inc., Rahway, tion will be made by MSD ADVET in the name NJ 07065. of the award recipient to his/her veterinary college of choice. Plus, each award will include ~11 a specially designed bronze plaque in bas-relief. Di vision of Merck & Co. , Inc. Rahway, New Jersey 07065